I bought a truck load of Penn cherry for my kitchen cabinets. The boards are 4/4 rough, primary 10' long 5-10" wide. What's the best way to plan them? I have Delta 13" benchtop finishing planner and 6" stationary jointer. I do not see how I can manage run board through jointer as they are long and heavy. Is there way to plan boards without running them through jointer?
You can make a jig that allows a router to substitute for a jointer. This will become very tedious in a hurry. When you are running it through the planer, the down face should be flat which is usually done on a jointer. If it isn't flat, bad things can happen. Jim
Here's a nice sled:
do the first pass to get the first face flat enough... with a hand plane.
Can you rough size them first? Then John Paul Jones them? I would rip them to rough size on my band saw, Cross cut to rough size, Face Joint, Face plane, Edge Joint then Rip. I'm of course assuming that your maching them down to 2 inch and ~ 3 inch stock for face frames and door rail and styles.
Don
The video shows a neat, elegant solution. Who'd have thought of bungee cords?
Good find!
And for the bandsaw challenged, a circular saw, if saw, handsaw etc. etc. will allow you to crosscut them to rough length... allow a couple of inches on each end for snipe or mis-measurement.
Now what Don said. Sorta. The order of operations is OK, but different strokes for different folks.
I've been known to face joint, use that face referenced against the jointer fence to joint one edge square to the face (or at an angle as needed).
One can then either plane them first and then rip (jointed edge against the fence). Or if the mood strikes, rip them the same way then plane them to final thickness, (when you do all this, try to take relatively equal amounts from each face... failure to do so could aggravate the natural of the wood.
This in turn can result in your nicely milled stock winding up with a cup, bow, twist or any permutations thereof! DAMHIKT!
It is also best IMHO, to use the pieces (assemble) as soon as possible after milling.
YMMV, Tom Maker of Fine Sawdust and Thin Shavings
For many years I have simply run the rough stock through the planer flipping the board each time. This works if the boards are straight and flat. Or you can rip the boards to fit the jointer and reglue them.
I prefer to try to rip any boards I am going to glue up to no more than four inches or so wide, then they will fit on the jointer then planer and clean up quicker. I used to rough plane full width first and lost a lot of wood that would not clean up flat. I also like to cut to rough length so that I have shorter boards to work on the jointer. Some waste here due to snipe allowance but a lot easier to work.
This despite the fact I have a good jointer( DJ-15) and a good planer (DC380).
usually you need to add at least 5" or more to remove snipe. there's more than 2" of snipe from your typical planer, IF it snipes. best bet is to measure the amount of snipe at each end and add length as necessary.
Dave
Dave
That's beautiful! Thanks for the link.
djb
I also do that, and it is usually good enough, but it is never really flat. That shows up on glue-ups, and especially on dovetails. They simply don't fit; while if you face joint them they are perfect.
(for Tom and Dave)
Glad you liked it. I build one in an afternoon and it works great. BTW, I did a shortcut by using half of a bi-fold door for the sled foundation. It's essentially a torsion box, so it's lighter than Rust's model, and it's the perfect size already (12" x 8'). In addition, they can be had for pennies at any salvage mart (I got mine for free at a Habitat ReSale store, they were throwing them away).
I combine Rust's jig with longer infeed/outfeed tables to eliminate snipe, and the jointer's good to go.
H
I've never done that. Figured since a straight edge is unimportant for the surface planing part, I can leave it until later.
Or is there some advantage that I've missed?
As stated, a matter of personal preference... for me, I'm already at the jointer, one edge will need to be straight and square (usually) for the ripping operation that will follow soon anyway.
Tom
Well maybe practice makes perfect. I have been doing it this way on good boards for 16+ years.
For you, the best way would have been to have the supplier surface at least one side.
Too late to do that now but you could haul them off to a local place and have them done. Cost maybe $0.10 /bd.ft. Alternatively, rough cut them to size, surface one side with your joiner then use the thickness planer.
-- dadiOH ____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at
Me too, and definitely more than 16.
Is there any reason you'd need many boards much longer than 3-4 feet or so for cabinets? Perhaps you could rough cut them to lenght before jointing, you wood probably have greater usable thickness by doing so also.
I am building cabinets in my own workshop and assembling them right in kitchen. Instead of building modular individual cabinets I build entire side 8' long consisting of several cabinets. The cabinets are divided by 3/4" plywood sides. Bottom and top of cabinets are also single 3/4"
8' long plywood panels dadoed to accept vertical sides. Back is 1/2" also single plywood panel. I find this approach allows me building the whole kitchen side of cabinets more solid all leveled. First I assemble case using screws. When everything is built and trimmed, I will disassemble all panels, finish with polyurethane and then glue and screw again. Having said this I would like to build one single face frame for all cabinets. It means I need horizontal frame boards be 8' long. Face frame is 1 1/2" wide.HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.